I couldn’t put The Unmaking of June Farrow down! Riveting, atmospheric, with enigmatic characters, all the things I know I’ll get in an Adrienne Young novel.

I’ve seen other reviewers advise this, and I agree completely: Go into this one blindly! I’d skimmed the synopsis but immediately requested this one because of how much I’d enjoyed Young’s previous adult novel, Spells for Forgetting. I didn’t need to know anything else. And I’m so glad I didn’t. I was able to immediately immerse myself into the story and let it take me where it may.

I don’t say this often, but if you haven’t read this one—and you fully intend to—just stop reading reviews. (Including this one!) You don’t need to know anything else. And now that I’ve finished the book and skimmed a few other reviews, I made the right choice because spoilers are aplenty!

Don’t worry, I won’t spoil anything, but I think this one is better read blindly.

Young has such an ability to paint a scene and develop characters, build a mystery. And I was hooked. And even though I guessed many of the twists, I still kept second-guessing myself. This is a twisty mystery—and it can give you a headache if you try to figure out how all the Farrow women connect—so it’s better to just sit back and enjoy the ride. (Although, I wouldn’t mind perusing a family tree!)

I only wish I would have picked this one up sooner—back during the hot summer—instead of waiting closer to the publishing date, because it is set in the summer, and I do love to match my books with the season I’m in.

I sped through The Unmaking of June Farrow in under 24 hours. It’s a book that had me thinking at the end, a book I’d love to discuss with other readers. And those are always my favorite kinds of books!

I think this author is just not for me. If you like her first book then you would most likely enjoy this one as well. The vibes/atmosphere is definitely there, I'm just not a huge fan of her writing/characterizations.

I could see how this book became a bestseller. It has everything a good story requires: nice writing through which the reader flows, likeable characters, good narration, the mystery of the main character, the manly man as love interest, family drama with cross generational interactions. Yet, I found this story lack so much logic! I have questions, and I have a lot of them. I don't understand this whole traveling in time theme, because after 50%, I felt this to be just a confusing tool that pushes the plot, not the magical realism on its own. Also, the relationship between characters was completely unnatural, their anger forced, their happiness not present, and their conversations lacking depth. I feel like everything I had trouble with YA "Fable" just came to this novel and stayed. I'd had a deep wish for this to have been proofread and checked for those plot holes which on its own could have a deeper explanation that just conventional time travel rules from our world. Overall, it was a miss for me, and like I said, if you are one for simple stories that you just want to relax to with a hit of romance then this is for you. If you are looking for a deep magical realism story, well join me in further research.

I loved this one! One of those books that you instantly know is going to be great and can't be put down. I’ve never read Spells for Forgetting which I’ve also heard great things about so I’ll be adding it to my list! No real complaints about this one although I’ll say parts of it were unnecessarily complicated, although it didn’t make me like it any less. Thank you to @randomhouse and @netgalley for my copy.

Available now!! Absolutely beautiful cover!!!

Started a little slow and confusing at times for me but wasn’t long and I was curious as to why the Farrow women had this “sickness” in their family line. Turns out it wasn’t sickness at all. Unfolds as time travel that still confused me slightly but was written beautifully and added mystery, romance, family drama all to the plot. Definitely kept me guessing and wanting to know what would happen next. Felt the flow of story from different time periods was easy to follow. My first by this author and excited to read other works.

Loved the character of June and her character had such depth. Rooted for her the whole story.

Thanks to Netgalley and Random house publishing for my electronic advanced reader copy in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own!

I love that this is featured in my home state. This has fantasy, mystery, adult NOT YA, magic and romance! you slowly digest the book and then once you get to a certain point you can't stop. I love Adrienne Young's writing and I have read several of her books! This is a perfect fall book to read!

THE UNMAKING OF JUNE FARROW is one of the best books I’ve read in a very long time. It has my favorite components: daughters seeking family information, North Carolina setting, witchy family secrets, time travel, small towns, love stories across time, and several mysteries that require solving. Our protagonist, June, has watched the women in her family lose themselves to some type of inherited madness; so she promises herself that she will never have a family of her own. She will end the malady with her own life. As she begins to experience strange thoughts herself, she believes the madness is starting. But has it really begun? Can she outwit it? This is a fascinating tale that wraps readers up in its world-building and character development. I was so engrossed in this story that I never noticed the passage of time. I read the book in one sitting. I could not put it down. I received my copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

In the town of Jasper, North Carolina everyone knows that there is something strange about the Farrow women and the madness that overtakes them. June Farrow has been haunted by the rumors about her family all her life, but after her mother’s disappearance, and the creeping reality that she’s next in line for the family’s mysterious curse, June is determined to find a way to break it.

THE UNMAKING OF JUNE FARROW is filled with a kind of cozy, quiet magic that I love from Adrienne Young’s novels. Her writing is so atmospheric, and along with her strong characters you are instantly transported into the story. I would love to live on the flower farm!

If you enjoy
- a familial curse
- A small town mystery
- Time travel
- Second chance romance (I think?)
- Focus on a matriarchal family

You will love THE UNMAKING OF JUNE FARROW. Grab a warm cup of coffee and a blanket! It’s required.

This may be a personal reader quirk of mine, but I have a hard time with time travel plots in all media. I don’t really know why but I always struggle to understand the rules. It’s just hard for me to keep track of everything. Maybe I am cursed too. Unfortunately, I had this problem with this book as well. While it didn’t make me enjoy the story any less, there were a lot of moments where I was lost on the details.


*Thank you to Random House for the e-arc copy.
Published review 10/17/2023

The Unmaking of June Farrow took me a number of chapters to get into, but once the plot started moving, I was absolutely hooked in a there-goes-two-perfectly-good-nights-of-sleep kind of way. Young’s novel is an appealing blend of relationship fiction (I’m trying to move away from the cringey term “women’s fiction”), speculative fiction, romance and mystery. It tells the story of a line of Farrow women who have always been considered odd by their small town in the blue mountains and treated as outsiders.

I don’t want to risk plot spoilers by saying much more; however, The Unmaking of June Farrow packs an extremely compelling premise and a satisfying plot. I would have loved for it to be longer so that there was space for more character development, but I would still recommend this as a really enjoyable read. This book is neither overtly witchy nor autumnal, but it felt perfect for October.

Thank you to Ballantine, Delacorte Press and NetGalley for the ARC!

The women in June's family all have an unexplained illness that makes them quickly or slowly lose their minds. June's symptoms started a year ago, but she's hiding it from everyone as her Gran is slowly dying. But after her Gran dies, a mailed photograph starts of a chain of events that may give June the answers to questions she's had since a child about her mother and about the illness that seems to plague every Farrow woman.

I didn't know what to expect when going into this book, as the last Adrienne Younge book I read was Namesake, a high fantasy set on the seas. This is more in the vein of Alice Hoffman, where the magic is more magical realism and families of women are the main focus. In fact, this book reminded me a lot of Hoffman's latest, the Vanishing Hour.
As with any time travel fiction, if you think about the plot holes too much, it'll make your brain hurt. The rules are you can only travel in time 3 times, but by my calculation, June would have to travel at least 5 times, if not more, to do everything she does or implied to have done.
But June's story is compelling, and while you may not like her 100% of the time, you can't help but root for her and the other doomed women in her family. You want to visit their flower farm, and their shop in town to buy boquets of the flowers they grow.

This is an auto grab author for me. I was not disappointed. The cover is gorgeous. I am a fan of a time travel book. I loved the mystery of the Farrow curse. The story was so good. I did not want to put the book down. I was guessing the whole time I was reading. I loved June and her family. I loved this book. I highly recommend it. Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for the arc in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced copy. The second book I have read from Adrienne Young. I really enjoy her writing and enjoy this book. I look forward to reading more from her.

This genre mashup knocked my socks off. I don't love many of the genres listed, but what Young did here is a true work of art. I also don't love time travel, but somehow Young made me not be able to look away. I don't love love stories, but make it star crossed and apparently I'm in love with it. Highly recommend this one!

This book is amazing! I found myself unable to put it down and thinking about what I read long past putting the book down each day. It is beautifully written and the story hooks you from beginning to end, I even found myself re-reading some parts to try to make sure I understood, because my mind was screaming what????? No Way????
It is written in a way that feels like magical threads are woven in to keep you guessing and wanting more.
I don't want to say anything about the story as I don't want to spoil anything, but so much unfolds and such a wonderful ending!!! I finished last night and I have thought about it all day! Thanks to #NetGalley for the ARC!

Adrienne Young does atmospheric detail so well. With each of her magical realism books I’ve had the pleasure of reading, she manages to transport me and really give me an almost surreal and tangible feeling of place.

This one centers around June Farrow (34), who works at her family’s flower farm in a small NC town nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains. The Farrow women have been cursed through the generations with madness before their deaths, hence she has made the difficult decision to neither marry nor have children. As she learns more about their strange family history, she discovers a secret that is both wonderful and cataclysmic at the same time, and she tries to circumvent fate for future Farrow women. I don’t want to share spoilers about the curse, but it’s a doozy and seemingly insurmountable and inevitable.

I felt like I knew June and her fellow cast of characters…their hopes, their fears, their heartaches, their joy. The circumstances of the curse were a bit complicated, so I really had to stay on my toes, but the denouement was oh so satisfying. There was a poignancy and essence to this book that really moved me.

This is my fourth book to read from Young, and they have each been uniquely beautiful as well as earning 5⭐️ ratings from me. Another wonderful story from a very talented author.

My sincere thanks to the author, NetGalley and Dell for providing the free early arc of The Unmaking of June Farrow for review. The opinions are strictly my own.

This is easily one of my favorite books of the year.

I've always been a fan of Adrienne's but with each book she keeps leveling up and I am constantly astounded by what she creates. Particularly in the adult space she has now ventured into, it is such a pleasure to get to read her work and immerse myself in her worlds and I cannot rave enough about the latest installment to her oeuvre, The Unmaking of June Farrow.

Adrienne builds these amazing worlds with a dash of magic and tons of atmosphere that make me feel like I'm there, smelling the flowers in the field and eating the blueberry pie along with the characters. I loved Adrienne's previous adult book, Spells for Forgetting but I think she's topped herself with June Farrow. It is so tightly plotted but so character driven...it's so masterful what she has created. June is a Farrow which means she will one day get the Farrow curse that caused the death of the women in her family and the disappearance of her mother. The death of June's grandmother triggers a quest for her as she tries to unravel a decades-old mystery while also trying to understand the exact nature of the curse that plagues her family.

The mysteries kept me turning the pages (and there are some moments that made me gasp out loud), but the humanity Adrienne brings to these characters, the soft romance, the fantasy of these worlds based on our own. Ugh...I could rave about it for days. I couldn't put this down and I can't wait to read it again and again and I know I will get more and more out of it.

Thank you so much to the publisher and NetGalley and Adrienne! for these words and letting me have an opportunity to experience it all early with an E-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Mysteries of the past come back to haunt the present in this addicting new story that will have your mind twisting and turning with theories and endless possibilities.

From strange disappearances to unexplained occurrences and bits of madness, a centuries-old curse follows the women of the Farrow family passed from generation to generation. To free herself from this unfortunate curse, June follows cryptic clues left by her late grandmother, hinting at a bigger entanglement of lies and deception than she ever expected.

This story kept me on the edge of my seat—eagerly awaiting the next surprising unveil or unprecedented twist. I LOVE how Young weaves nature into her books, and how they add an extra element to the overall mystery and allure. The small town, rural setting elevated the atmosphere of suspense and kept me second-guessing everything up until the end.

I admired the strong sense of family in this story and how June came to accept herself through that bond and see that she always deserved the love she thought she never would encounter. All those thoughts, themes, and feelings left me so emotional and tearing up by the end.

If you loved the atmospheric vibes from Spells for Forgetting and want a mystery that truly leaves you in suspense, definitely keep this new read in mind.

4.5/5

*Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me an eARC in exchange for an honest review.*

🌾 What an absolute joy of a book this was to read. It’s whimsical, creative, thoughtful and just absolutely wonderful!

🌾 This is one of those books that’s hard to review without giving anyway so I’ll just let you know you can expect…
- some magical realism
- a love story
- a journey of self-discovery
- a powerful female MC who fights for her family
- outcast family in a small town

🌾 But bottom line, just trust me and add it to your fall TBR, mmmk?

Adrienne Young’s writing is always so beautiful and magical, and it is so easy to lose yourself in the worlds that she creates.

This was a slower start for me, but once I got into it, I was thoroughly hooked. For the last third of the book I was basically at the edge of my seat and stressed about what was going to happen. Loved June and the town of Jasper. Another fantastic read from Adrienne Young.

Thank you NetGalley for an eARC of this book in exchange for my review!

I've been a fan of Adrienne's writing for years, so it's no surprise that I enjoyed this one, but it swept me up in a really unexpected way. I would definitely encourage you to go into this book blind and just let the story take you. It's full of twists and turns, beautiful magical realism, and small town charm. The second chance romance aspect was super unconventional, and I really enjoyed it.

I think my favorite part of the story was the focus on familial love. It was really touching and gave me all sorts of warm fuzzies while I was entrapped with the mystery and magic.

If you're looking for a twisty read, this one is for you!

5/5 stars